Ken Arnold's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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California Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| No | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| I would not aggressively challenge current restrictions on use of Federal monies. I oppose late term abortions but would not support a blanket criminalization of all post-first-trimester abortions. Abortion is often a medical decision and I do not think legislators, courts or law enforcement should be routinely involved. Abortion should be a matter for the woman, her conscience, her faith and physician to deal with, not the government. I do not think this should be an issue for Federal law enforcement involvement.The states generally oversee medical practices and regulations. | |||
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) TaxesIndicate what federal tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Maintain Status | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Maintain Status | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical research | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Scientific research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| i) Other or expanded categories | |||
| No | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| No | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| Yes | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| We are spending far more on agricultural subsidies than are needed to achieve the program's objectives. We need to have strong intelligence but I suspect, as reported, that most of the phenomenal uncontrolled expansion of expenditures there in the past 10 years is unjustified and highly wasteful. The relatively small amounts we expend for foreign aid and the United Nations do far more for our national security than the same amount in military expenditures (which dwarfs them). We need to promote and protect our scientific and technological leadership for our and the world's benefit. | |||
| I am generally in favor of balancing the federal budget but in cases of major war or economic recession or depression would allow exceptions. The other party, which contains so many purporting to be deficit hawks, has the unquestionably worst record in that area. When in power they greatly increase spending and reduce revenues as if debt does not matter, then quickly change their tune when out of power. | |||
| No | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| I am very interested in reducing the burden of government regulations. I would eliminate those that no longer serve a purpose and try to make compliance with others easier and less burdensome on business and individuals. Federal job-training programs should be predominately for those suffering displacement as a result of federal actions but may be justified in some other circumstances. | |||
| No | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| In places where public campaign financing is provided, the taxpayers actually save money and are happier with their representatives. There is less lobbyist influence and far less pork-barrel and earmark spending. Corporations should be allowed to directly lobby legislators and provide them information on behalf of their shareholders, employees and customers, but they are creations of the state and not citizens and should not be allowed to directly effect our elections. Their interests in the electoral process should only be represented by their citizen shareholders, employees and customers. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related training and job-placement assistance when released? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support reduced prison sentences for non-violent offenders? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | ||
| While I am personally opposed to the death penalty, I support democracy and the law more, so will uphold the laws and the rule of the majority. I understand the public's desire for mandatory minimums and support sentencing guidelines. However, we call it a justice system for a reason and I believe that juries and judges should be allowed some discretion to see that justice is done. Life and humanity are dynamic and complex not formulaic. A fixed solution or law cannot anticipate every possible circumstance, that is in part why we have courts and juries. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| I support the DoE providing educational guidelines and standards. I don't think we should have uniform national curricula, the nation benefits from diversity. Standardized tests cannot test for some of the most important things we want to instill in our students: language skills, imagination, creativity, nor many forms of critical thinking or advanced problem solving. I prefer all school funding be at state or local level but understand that is not presently realistic. I could support some funding for charter schools and/or vouchers if somehow done in way that would not harm the public school system. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| No | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| Climate change is a real threat and the incumbent will not recognize the scientific reality. He is scientifically illiterate. I support further research on nuclear power especially fusion. There are significant concerns with fission technology, of which proliferation, terrorism and waste disposal are only some apparently intractable ones. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| Restrictions...yes certainly sensible ones, felons, mentally unstable, fully auto hi-caliber.... I come from a hunting and gun owning family. I was trained in gun safety and shooting at ten. I believe more in local control. What's reasonable to have, carry and use in rural Montana doesn't make sense in urban Chicago or Manhattan. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Should the federal government expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| Some - very high - limits on malpractice judgments against individual doctors or institutions may be effective in reducing bloated medical malpractice insurance costs. More importantly though, medical boards must be more willing and able to take action including license suspension or revocation when appropriate. Further we need better controls on new pharmaceuticals. FDA allowing to much into wide use with inadequate testing or justification. We wouldn't need to import or re-import, if drugs could be marketed in the USA at competitive prices. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| No | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| No | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| A full discussion of our immigration issues cannot be done within this 100 word limit nor can solutions be fit into neat sound bites or catch phrases. Please refer to my website for more information. | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| Yes | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| No | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| None of these questions are cut and dry and simple yes or no answers are not appropriate. Some military presence in Afghanistan to secure economic and other aid is acceptable. We should develop relationship with Pakistan such that its government can be trusted to take on real terrorist targets. Condone Iranian sanctions only against the government, military, police and intelligence services but not against the general population. Not all free trade agreements are per se bad, but some have been and are terrible and need to be renegotiated. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support allowing openly-gay men and women to serve in the United States military? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| No | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| Religious institutions of course remain free to sanction or not any marriage. The Federal government should recognize whatever forms of 'marriage' the individual states allow and recognize. Research with human tissue and genetic material needs oversight and rational ethical and legal guidelines. Affirmative action programs should be ended where they are no longer needed or no longer serve a positive societal purpose. | |||
| In present circumstances, our economy has to be the top priority. We are reaping the consequences of 30 years of supply-side only economics, runaway reckless deregulation, attacks upon government itself, excessive debt, overly powerful lobbies and some really poor policies. Recovery from this hole will require far more than government alone can do. Trillions in private assets (stocks, home values and more) have been lost. Consumer and business confidence are near bottom. Many tactics are needed to create jobs and stabilize real estate. We need to protect public sector, improve infrastructure, restore American manufacturing and work towards energy independence. |
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